THERE IS strong support among Jamaicans for the nude Emancipation Park statues at one of the entrances to the park, according to the findings of the latest Gleaner-commissioned poll.
Pollster Don Anderson and his team from Market Research Services Ltd. found that a little over 50 per cent of the people polled found nothing wrong with the supersized figures.
The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 per cent, was conducted between September 15 and 24. A total of 1,000 persons 18 years and older were interviewed across the island's 14 parishes.
According to Mr. Anderson, members of the public who were interviewed could not understand the reason for the "negative fuss being created over the sculpture as they saw it as being beautiful, a work of art, consistent with our culture and representative of and appropriate for Emancipation Park and as reminder of our slavery heritage."
SEEN THE STATUES
The poll found that close to 65 per cent of persons interviewed have either seen the statues at the park or photographs in the newspapers. "From a parish perspective, persons in Kingston and Portmore, St. Catherine have been the principal ones to have seen the statues," said Mr. Anderson in his analysis. "But it is interesting to note that in every parish, save for St. Elizabeth, the majority of persons have seen the statues."
There was strong opposition from members of the public in the weeks following the mounting of the statues at the park entrance. The detractors charged that the nude figures of an adult male and female were inappropriate for a public space. They charged that the figures could have depicted Emancipation 'wearing clothes'.
The over 35 per cent who opposed were mostly in the over-55 age group. The majority of these persons found the statues to be indecently exposed while the remaining few thought
they had nothing to do with Emancipation and that they were a waste of money.
The monument, designed by Laura Facey-Cooper, replaces the borrowed statue that was previously erected at the same spot when the park opened on August 1, 2002.
